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This is my first experiment in animating SVG with JavaScript! The image was created in Inkscape, then I edited the XML to add JavaScript code to adjust the arm’s rotation every 35 milliseconds. This is my second JavaScript program ever!

It should work correctly on most modern browsers. If you don’t see the arm moving, you may need to turn on JavaScript. If you don’t see the image at all, you should upgrade to a browser with SVG support, like Firefox or Chrome!

I’ve been making some positive life changes lately. You know, the usual stuff: eliminating stress, exercising more, focusing on the things in life that are important to me, … and transforming into a mermaid!?

As you can see, I’m shedding my human-ness in SL, and embracing my aquatic side. There’s still a ways to go in the transformation. I need new hair, eyes, and probably a new wardrobe! (Hrmm. I guess that’s what my fortune cookie meant: “You will be doing a lot of shopping soon… in bed!”)

But, the first stage is done: a new skin! My deepest gratitude to Eloh Eliot for her Starlight skin, which I used as a base. Without Eloh’s generosity, my skin would have taken weeks, instead of a few days. Actually, I probably wouldn’t have even attempted it, as it wouldn’t have been worth the time investment.

It has been an intense two and a half months since we first announced the Imprudence project. There has been laughter, there has been joy, there has been boredom and frustration, stress and near burn-out, and a medley of other emotions thrown in there as well.

But today itís all worth it, because today the first release candidate of the Imprudence Viewer is ready!

I’m happy (and rather relieved) to announce that after power-coding day and night for the past week, I’ve released a handy new device: the Deliverator. I’m sure you’ll find that it is the easiest and most convenient way to deliver a gift, notecard, or other item to a long list of your friends or customers!

I’ve been plotting and scheming and laboring for the past month on a new project. Those of you who have heard me hinting darkly of a grand manifesto and giggling maniacally in the dead of the night — now you’ll find out why.

Imprudence is (or rather, will be) a major fork of the open source Second Life Viewer. Our aim is to greatly improve the usability of the Viewer through community involvement, thoughtful design, modern development methods, and a pro-change atmosphere.

Why are we doing this? Because we, the Second Life Residents, need a better Viewer, and Linden Lab isn’t getting it done — not fast enough, anyway.

I’m sure they’re trying. They have made some modest improvement. But they are faced with intractable obstacles that block them from making real progress: a lack of resources, an overloaded QA process, and a large established user base who are, on the whole, sullenly content with the way things are — and tend to resist any change.

Those are tough problems, and I don’t foresee Linden Lab being able to get past them any time soon. Rather than continue to push against these obstacles with little to show for it, I’ve decided to carve another path. A community project has its own obstacles, but they are obstacles that we can overcome. They are obstacles we can act against for ourselves, instead of sitting on our hands waiting for someone else to act for us.

I have high hopes for this project. It has been a long time coming, and there are a lot of people dissatisfied with the current viewer. If you’re one of them, get involved in the project and help us make it better!

Grant Linden has invited me to present my UI design at the SL User Experience Office Hour (SLUXOH) this Thursday at 3PM SLT. Not being one to turn down an invitation from a Linden to show off my goods to the world, I’ll be explaining the design rationale, answering questions from the audience, and waving a laser pointer around and making spaceship sounds with my mouth while we wait for my slide images to rez. I can guarantee it will be a hoot and/or holler. BYOF (bring your own feedback).

By the way, if you’re into this sort of SLUXy stuff, I recommend subscribing to the SL-UX mailing list. There are a bunch of neat people who put forward interesting UI ideas and feedback at sporadic intervals… lots of good times to be had!

It’s done! I am pleased to present to you, SL Animation for Blender Newbs. It’s 6 pages long, with pictures. It might take you maybe 30 minutes or so to follow along, I’m guessing. If you have any feedback (e.g. suggestions or praise), leave a comment on any of the pages.

I’ve been banging away on a tutorial, called SL Animation for Blender Newbs. It’s a gentle introduction to the SL animation exporter, with just enough Blender-fu to get you started. And it has pictures! It’s about 80% done right now; I’m hoping to have it finished up tomorrow or the next day. So, mark your calendars and all that. *4AM head-desk-bonk*

A new revision (2008-06-02) of the Animation Exporter is available. This revision is mostly UI changes to improve usability, especially for new users who have not mastered Blender’s UI yet. The new layout will also scale better to different screen sizes.

[Update Dec 15: PLEASE NOTE: If you get an error about a missing pickle, you will need to install Python.]

Here’s the revision log:

Changed window layout to be grouped more logically.

Panel headers are now at the top, as is standard in most UIs.

Moved the button toolbar to the Tweaking screen (Ctrl-Right).

Minor UI tweaks to the exporter script.

Auto-key is enabled by default. [Edit: Apparently this setting doesn't save with the file, so you'll have to enable it yourself.]

Removed mesh UV maps and materials to reduce file size.

And a snapshot of the main view. Click to enlarge:

Enjoy.

P.S. I still deny that I’m maintaining this thing, despite all evidence. :P